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Engineer, Miner, Builder of Sutro Tunnel, Capitalist, Bibliophile, 
Philanthropist, Patriot, Mayor of San Francisco 



ADOLPH SUTRO 



A BRIEF STORY OF A BRILLIANT LIFE 



BY 



EUGENIA KELLOGG HOLMES 



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ILLUSTRATED BY 

CARL DAHLGREN 



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engraved and published by the 

Press of San Francisco Photo-Engraving Co. 

518-20 sacramento st., san francisco 

1895 






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©®® * COF*VRIGHT 1895 BY 

EUGENIA^KELLOGG HOLMES 

<«'< '",'*« **\l fi f ****** '4i«RI«HTS RESERVED 




PUBLISHER'S NOTE 



In submitting to the public as an edition de luxe, this biographical 
sketch of Adolph Sutro, Mayor of San Francisco, the publishers desire 
to add a few words to what has been so ably written by Mrs. Eugenia 
K. Holmes about the Chief Magistrate of the City of the Golden Gate, 

Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfeld, once said "the author 
who speaks about his own books is almost as bad as a mother who talks 
about her own children," and it is not for Mrs. Holmes to sound the 
praises of her own work. Citizens of San Francisco and the State of 
California will, however, recognize in the pages of Mrs. Holmes a 
true and faithful portrait of Adolph Sutro, whose life, public and pri- 
vate, has been before his fellow citizens like an open book from pioneer 
times down to the present day. Mr. Sutro' s taste for the beautiful is 
well known, and his ample wealth, honorably earned, has enabled him to 
surround his later years with all thai is most rich and rare, scholarly, 
cultured, and beautiful. The publishers have endeavored to embody, 
as is fitting, the life-story of Mr. Sutro in a setting of artistic photo- 
graphic and printing work, in the excellence of which they take legiti- 
mate pride. 

Of Mr. Sutro, in his long career as one of California's pioneers, it 
may be written in the words of England 's late Poet- Laureate: 
"And thus he bore without abuse 

The grand old name of gentleman, 
DefamsVd by every charlatan 
And soil'd with all ignoble use." 

San Francisco, gth October, 1895. 



^dedicated to 

f kA life in civic action warm, 
oA soul on highest mission sent, 
oA potent voice of Parliament, 
qA pillar steadfast in the storm." 

oAdolph Sutro. 



SUTRO HEIGHTS 

Where gray cliffs climb from a green fringed main, 

oBeflowered with foam and shell ; 
Where mermaids murmur a mystic refrain, 

oAnd seals hold a wild revel ; 
•oA story is told in the amber sand, 

in each flower and tree and fountain s gleam ; 
JSy the toilers hand and the artist's wand, 
in sylvan shades, where ^Dianas dream. 
While maidens sing in the earth or sea, 

oAnd beauty breathes in grove or glen, 
While tides intone their weird symphony, 

This story will be read by the children of men. 






T Aix-la-Chapelle — the German Aachen — an 
ancient and imperial city, capital of the dis- 
trict of that name in Rhenish Prussia, one 
of the three divisions skirted by the storied Rhine, 
the location a delightful and fertile valley, girdled 
by frowning mountains, dense with dark forests 
and further fortified on the lower levels, by grim 
ramparts that screen its charm of chapel, palaces, 
promenades and park from the gaze of the trav- 
eler — there was born, April 29th, 1830, of German 
parents, distinguished for their thrift, industry, and 
integrity — a son. 

By the birth of that son, the City of San Fran- 
cisco, the State of California, and the world of 
which these municipalities form so important a 



— 9 — 



part, is enriched to a degree inestimable, since the 
qualities which form nobility of character are 
incalculably precious and therefore beyond the 
judgment of men. 

Amid scenes and associations unparalleled in his- 
toric trophies, the youthful years of this scion of 
the sterling virtues were passed; for Aix-la-Cha- 
pelle, known in learned L,atin as Aquis Granum, 
received its name from one — Severus Granius, a Ro- 
man commander, who is supposed to have founded 
the town about A. d. 125. 

Certain it is, that Aquis Granum became a favorite 
resort of the Romans, who first sought it for the 
natural sulphur springs abounding there, renowned 
for their alleviation of varied infirmities, among 
them acute cases of rheumatism and gout. 

This was long before the advent of the Emperor 
Charlemagne, who endowed it with added dignity 
by making it, during his dynasty, the first city in 
the Empire and the capital of all his dominions 
North of the Alps. 

A magnificent mausoleum there marks his re- 
mains ; his statue, in bronze, adorns the market 
place ; his fountain sprays the bearded trees ; 
planted it is said, by him. 



— 10 — 




FOREST AND GARDEN, AIX-LA-CH APELLE 
HOME OF ADOLPH SUTRO 



The chapel where he worshiped, and where repose 
his remains, contains relics of reputed antiquity, 
which are objects of exceeding veneration by the 
children of the Roman Church, who assemble there 
in great numbers every seven years, when the relics 
are placed on exhibition. 

For the citizens of Aix-la-Chapelle the giant 
Emperor is said to have cherished a singular affec- 
tion, his favor partaking of the form of the con- 
ference of numerous privileges, such as exemption 
from military service and the payment of taxes. 

The wall which surrounds this favorite residence 
of the Frankish Kings was built by Charlemagne, 
and subsequently stormed by Otho of Brunswick, 
in the year 1198, and by William of Holland, in 
1247, to whom the city surrendered after a siege 
of six months. 

This wall, pierced originally by ten gates, and 
partially demolished by the Hollanders, was rebuilt 
and strengthened by Frederick Barbarossa, whose 
fondness for this Elysian of the ancients equaled 
that of the natives, who were wont to say with 
pride, " After Rome — Aix-la-Chapelle." 

It was here that Napoleon the First rested, when 
wearied with war's rude reveilles. 

— 13 — 



Long ago the vandals razed the favorite palace of 
Charlemagne, and upon its ruins, by way of com- 
plimentary apology, was erected Coronation Hall, 
where his successors, for more than seven centuries, 
have been crowned. 

Two towers, of ancient Roman origin, rear their 
stately battlements above the marts of manufac- 
turers, mechanics and the kinsmen of commerce, 
in silent scorn, it would seem, for those usurpers of 
the picturesque; but the springs, where Kings loved 
to drink and bathe, remain unchanged. 

Ephen, the favorite hunting ground of royalty, 
situated in the environs of Aix-la-Chapelle, where 
the meadows are gay with green and bloom, and 
where nightingales warble among the tender leaves, 
is still sought by weary wanderers, who, like Im- 
perial Charlemagne, suffer the balm of nature to 
soothe life's gnawing cares. 

Though the commercial tendency of the age 
conduces to little reverence for the hallowed, the 
historic, the picturesque, yet those who are truly 
reflective must acknowledge the value of these mute, 
invisible sentinels. 

We are all products of the past, and with it our 

lives are indissolubly linked. 

— 14 — 




BIRTHPLACE OF ADOLPH SUTRO 





SUTRO CLOTH FACTORY, AIX-LA-CHAPELLE 



Such sentiments seem inseparable from a study of 
the early life of Adolph Sutro, for as a lad, we may 
without elasticity of imagination, behold him alone 
and aloof from others of similar age ; ruminating 
among the ruins of European rulers ; delving into 
the intricate things of earth ; scanning the mysteries 
of wave and wind for an intelligible answer to his 
earnest queries ; experimenting with tangled shreds 
of dismembered machinery ; tracing the starry con- 
stellations with a tiny telescope ; such having been 
his youthful occupation, and as such he remains a 
part of the wise, serene, philanthropic, patriarchal 
old world. 

A region of new, raw, jarring, nerve-destructive 
environments could not have produced a Sutro. 

At the age of sixteen, much to his regret, the 
young student left school to assume the superin- 
tendence of his father's factory. Two years later, 
such being his acquired competency, he was intrus- 
ted to the more important post of establishing a 
similar store at Menel, in Eastern Prussia. 

The death of Mr. Sutro, Senior, in December, 
1847, increased the son's responsibility, the busi- 
ness by that event becoming family property, under 

the sole management of Adolph and his brother* 

— 17 — 



But for the Revolution of 1848, which sent a 
shudder through Europe, menacing the securest 
form of government, disorganizing business and 
sundering the sacred ties of kindred, it is presum- 
able that the brothers might have continued in 
uninterrupted prosperity the work of manufactur- 
ing cloth, after the manner of their sire. 

The universal crash, however, could not but 
affect the firm of the Sutros. There was no alter- 
native — it had to be given up. 

With a ready resolution and unerring breadth of 
vision for which she was remarkable, Mrs. Sutro 
decided that there was small prospect in the Fath- 
erland, under the circumstances, for such a future 
as she aspired too for her family, composed of 
eleven children. The choice of a foreign home was 
deemed imperative, and the lady favored America. 

In the Autumn of 1850 the Sutros landed in 
New York, and subsequently settled in Baltimore, 
Maryland. 

It was about this time that the California gold 
excitement waged most fiercely, when armies of 
men forsook the fetters which civilization had 
forged, and fled, with a speed impeded only by the 
pathless plains, the desert wastes, the hostile sav- 



— 18 



ages, the treacherous winds and tides, to the far- 
fabled shores of the Pacific. 

Young Sutro readily grasped the meaning of this 
excitement, being among the first to take passage 
on a sailing vessel bound for the port of San Fran- 
cisco. 

During this voyage, which lengthened to months, 
the winds being variable, the ambitious adventurer 
beguiled his time by writing letters, descriptive of 
scenery witnessed, the strange and interesting types 
of life encountered, and in keeping an accurate rec- 
ord of occuring incidents. 

Those letters, addressed to his mother and sis- 
ters, are still extant ; their contents bespeak the 
same appreciation of nature, comradeship with 
humanity, independence of action and unswerv- 
ing, lofty purpose, which has since been brought 
to such conspicuous fruition. 

November 21st, 1851, marks the date of Mr. 
Sutro' s arrival in San Francisco. 

His fortune at that time consisted solely in youth 
(he was less than twenty), health, hope, courage, 
ambition and indomitable energy. 

With this uncurrent capital he went into busi- 
ness on the water front. For nine years he worked 



hard in what is called petty trade, buying, selling, 
keeping a limited supply of the best cigars and 
tobacco; living, as those have ever lived who toil 
without compensation, other than frugal food, few 
comforts, and the recreation which exists only in 
name. 

During this period of time (the year 1856) Mr. 
Sutro married, and was thereafter encouraged and 
assisted by a faithful, fond wife. "But for her," — 
he states in one of his public addresses — "I 
should have lost heart altogether, but my wife 
never repined — never reproached me for the poverty 
with which we struggled — never wavered in devo- 
tion." 

Six children — two sons and four daughters — 
were the result of that marriage. They were 
trained in the healthful simplicity which forms 
the firmest foundation for mental and physical per- 
fection. 

All survive their mother, who died December 8 th, 
1893, at the Hayes and Fillmore family residence, 
in San Francisco. Those survivors are Mrs. Albert 
Morbio, Mrs. Moritz Nussbaum, Mrs. Dr. Sutro L. 
Merritt, Miss Clara A. Sutro, Mr. Charles W. and 
Mr. Edgar Sutro. 



Each is personally identified with some practical 
work, of a character largely philanthropic. 

From the monotony of a life devoted to domes- 
ticity and the routine of retail trade, Mr. Sutro was 
at length, stirred by a sensation electrifying to the 
Pacific Coast, and extending in its interest, to re- 
moter regions. 

The occasion was the discovery of the Comstock 
Lode, in the State of Nevada. 

Mr. Sutro visited this exciting section for the 
first time in the year 1859, and there found the 
opportunity to apply the scientific knowledge 
gained by years of patient study. 

The immediate need of ventilating and draining 
the mines, was impressively apparent to the young 
man, who saw that great volumes of water im- 
peded the progress of labor and its reasonable 
reward. 

Pumping it was a costly and most precarious 
experiment; a depth of 1500 feet had been reached; 
the temperature in the lower levels was no degrees, 
rendering work almost impossible for more than 
a very brief period. The air was so foul that the 
men who inhaled it, fainted in those poisoned cav- 
erns and fell — dead. "If I could but drain those 

— 23 — 



mines ! " was the thought that flashed, as Heaven- 
sent inspiration, through the freighted chambers of 
a fertile brain. 

This thought found expression in a letter, first 
published in the "San Francisco Alta," April 30, 
i860. "An unfeasible plan ! " " The audacity of a 
dreamer ! ' ' sneered the pessimistic, for well they 
knew that a gateway through granite needed the 
resonance supplied by bonds and coined securities, 
ere the hidden treasures of the caverns would be 
made to surrender. 

The young man, whose fortune was then locked 
in the rigid fastnesses, heeded not the hissing 
voices of harpies, but, by his own individual effort, 
alone and unaided, secured the right of franchise 
to those remote recesses. 

His subsequent tasks were to obtain and retain the 
confidence of capitalists at home and abroad ; to 
maintain control of political power in Washington, 
in London, and San Francisco; to make frequent 
marine "and overland voyages extending over two 
hemispheres; to watch, at the same time, the pro- 
gress of work at the mines, and act as their super- 
intendent. 

These were herculean tasks, combined with haz- 

— 24 — 




DIANA 



ardous venture, manual toil, and diplomacy unpar- 
alleled in the history of Courts, Kingdoms or 
Republics. 

After the merits of the enterprise were fully un- 
derstood and recognized, there followed even more 
desperate struggles to maintain it against conspira- 
cies combined to thrust Mr. Sutro out, that others 
might appropriate the result of his efforts. 

Only faith, preeminent and unswerving, in the 
project sought, coupled with unremitting industry, 
could have carried such plans to successful com- 
pletion. 

It was accomplished however, exactly as pro- 
posed, and occupied its originator, fourteen years 
of such effort as few men could have approached. 

The tunnel, linked inseparably with the name of 
Sutro, was finished October, 1878. Its dimensions 
were 10 feet high, 12 feet wide, 20,500 feet long, 
with North and South branches having 3600 feet 
in the aggregate, making its entire length more 
than five miles. 

Its cost, without interest, was $4,500,000; includ- 
ing interest, $6,500,000. 

From the corporation he had organized Mr. Sutro 

at length relinquished all monetary interest, retain- 

— 27 — 



ing an amount to his credit of not less than $5,000,- 
000. With it he returned to San Francisco, his 
favorite city, there to permanently reside. 

About this time the "sand-lot" agitation had 
greatly depreciated the value of real estate in that 
locality. 

From a close study of the soil and its varied 
resources, the Seer of the sand hills knew that not 
a rood of the yellow dunes, sprayed by the swirling 
surf, would one day be worth less than its weight 
in gold, though it was then without shred of green, 
or glance of rill, or glint of bloom. 

With the breadth of vision, unerring judgment, 
and prompt action which had brought the tunnel 
to successful completion, Mr. Sutro invested vastly 
in shore lands, believed, by the then doubting public 
to be worthless. 

Men were employed for the improvement of 
those arid acres, w T ho, under the master's direc- 
tion, pierced the subterranean depths by shafts and 
pumps; sent iron conduits through the stubborn 
hills in search of the needful water; blasted the 
rocks and had them cut into staircases, parapets, 
and the walls of lake-like reservoirs. 

Millions of tender seedlings were planted in the 

— 28 — 



sear spaces and gently nurtured in the plastic 
sands, softened by soothing water brought from the 
summit stores. 

These, Mr. Sutro calls the children of his age, for 
tree planting, with him, is a labor of love. 

Those infant forests have grown to sturdy groves 
which skirt the horizon with swaying leaves. 

Playgrounds, especially provided for children, are 
on those wooded hills, as well as reposeful places 
for gray-haired adults, who find solace, sweet and 
inspirational, in the song-haunted shadows. 

At Sutro Heights, a superb suburb of the city of 
splendid eminences, situated upon a natural walled 
promontory, overlooking lone Tamalpais, the mist- 
mantled Farallones, the gleaming Golden Gate, 
statue - crowned Mount Olympus, sapphire - hued 
seal rocks, the sea, the beach, the golden-globed 
sunsets, are shrubs and flowers of every zone, 
trained in carpeted rainbows, leaf-woven bowers 
and embroidered boulevards. 

The more delicate exotics, formed to flourish in 
tropical climes, are sheltered from the harsh winds 
and dense fogs of that aerial altitude in a glass con- 
servatory, — but one among the many attractions of 
this idyllic spot. 

— 31 — 



The statuary, set in the niches, terraces, par- 
terres, parapets, along the tree-lined walks and 
drives, are copies of celebrated sculpture, transpor- 
ted with great care from European capitals. 

The residence, quaint and unique, is gemmed 
with speaking souvenirs of Mr. Sutro's many tours 
in every accessible part of the world, each an ex- 
pression of taste, intelligence and appreciation for 
the best in human skill. 

The rich, the cultivated and traveled find there, 
environments of harmony, while the poor are not 
pained by ostentation nor cankering contrasts. 

Among the visitors entertained at the white- 
towered cottage on the cliff, may be mentioned the 
Notables of all nations, friends, kindred and 
acquaintances — representative of every class, for 
this famous sea-park is closed to none. 

The mailed knights at the gates are hospitable. 
The snowy-lipped lions at the lodge are locked in 
reposeful slumber. 

Mr: Sutro has said in public print — "San Fran- 
cisco has a hoodlum and criminal class, but when 
the members of this class have visited the Heights 

they have always behaved themselves," proving 

— 32 — 






j& 



,'■:■ 




ENTRANCE SUTRO HEIGHTS 



their admittance thereto, and their respect for the 
privilege. 

But Mr. Sutro does not, in his lofty eyrie, on the 
cliff's crest, surrender himself to the exclusive 
delights of entertainment. 

Much of his well-earned leisure has long been 
devoted to the construction of a monument more 
enduring than any possible triumph of marble or 
bronze, museum, tunnel, grove or garden. 

This is the Sutro Library, conceded by men of 
the highest scholarship to be one of the four great 
libraries of the United States. Three hundred 
thousand volumes have already been collected by 
agents stationed in the best Continental book 
marts, and additions are being constantly made. 

Among the rarest tomes and incunabula, may be 
mentioned duplicates of the early printer's art, 
from the famous Munich Library, four thousand in 
number; folios of the classics from the monastery 
of Boxheim and the Duke of Dahlberg, the Sun- 
derland Library and the confiscated monasteries of 
Bavaria. 

There are Mexican works, relating to the war of 
independence, from the ancient archives of the 
Aztec capital; two thousand three hundred Jap- 



anese manuscripts were borne from the bright land 
of the ' ' Morning Calm ; ' ' collections of Semitic 
philology, the chemical literature of the late Sec- 
retary Wells, of the English Society of Industrial 
Chemistry, have furnished about two thousand five 
hundred volumes. 

A complete military, architectural and botanical 
library contributes its golconda of treasure; antique 
and priceless scrolls from the Orient are preserved 
with the parchments of Maimonides, author of 
"Ram Bam," who was called the Light of Israel, 
the Star of the West, and the Great Eagle. 

Classics, poems, plays in all languages of the 
learned, are in those closely packed cases, book- 
lined walls, and heavily-laden galleries, which 
contain, temporarily, the greatest wonders of the 
printing press known to the New World. When 
completed, as designed, it will be accessible to 
every disciple of science, that being the special 
motive of its magnanimous founder. 

The structure site chosen for this colossal collec- 
tion of literary treasure is in Golden Gate Park, 
near the music stand. It will be fire proof and free 
to the public. 

But not alone in the absorbing walks of the bib- 

-38- 



liophile, the charms of hospitality, the conflicting 
cares of exalted office, does Mr. Sutro find entire 
concentration ; his active brain demands perpetual 
achievement. 

The more recent of these achievements partaking 
of the form of baths, which rival in magnitude, 
utility and beauty, the famous abluvion resorts of 
Titus, Caracalla, Nero or Diocletian. 

Those wonderful expressions of architectural 
skill — airy, graceful, yet substantial — are located 
in a wave-worn cove at the foot of the cliffs, and 
brought to utilitarian perfection by a triumph of 
engineering invention. 

This consists of a series of basins, blasted in the 
rock, which receive the water pure from Ocean's 
briny caverns, b) T a complete system of tunnels and 
canals, so ingeniously devised as to supply the 
receptacles with both hot and cold currents, and 
drain them, after use. 

Thus have the tides been harnessed and made 
subservient to the multitudes. 

There are six swimming tanks, the largest being 
L,-shaped, three hundred feet long and one hundred 
and fifty feet wide at the furthest extremity. An- 
other is fifty by seventy-five feet, reserved exclu- 

— 41 — 



sively for women and children. Four are, each, 
twenty -eight by seventy-five feet. The depth of 
the water varies irom two to eleven feet. All these 
tanks are walled and floored with creamy concrete, 
deluged or drained when desired by the simple turn 
of taps. 

Spring-boards, toboggan slides, trapezes, bars, 
swings, and all purchasable paraphernalia, are pro- 
vided for the promotion of acquatic sports, and 
afford agreeable access to the water. 

Five hundred dressing rooms, perfectly ventila- 
ted, heated, lighted by electricity, furnished with 
showers, soap, toweling, bathing suits and all 
necessary toilet articles, are reached by the aid of 
spacious elevators and broad staircases, that lead 
likewise to arcades, pavilions, balustrades, prome- 
nades, alcoves and corridors adorned with tropical 
plants, fountains, flowers, pictures, bric-a-brac, the 
collected treasure of foreign travels, in bewildering 
and most beautiful variety. 

The facade has a portico with four Ionic columns 
and pilasters which lead to a noble staircase, wide, 
gradual of ascent, bordered with broad -leaved 
palms, the flowering pomegranate, fragrant magnol- 
ias and the lance-like arms of the reaching maguay. 

— 42 — 



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MUSEUM SUTRO BATHS 




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This staircase touches the very rim of the revel- 
ing waves. 

The foyer, on Point Lobos avenue, is in the 
Greek Doric cast of architecture, and conveys 
those who favor driving, to a carriage way that 
winds among tall terraces, rough-surfaced shelves 
and lichen-laced rocks, wrought by the warring 
winds and tides. 

A distinctly noticeable feature of this stupendous 
establishment is a stage, constructed for the per- 
formance of operas, dramas, acrobatic exhibitions, 
and the display of any talent or skill contributable 
to public entertainment. 

The seats, arranged in tiers, form an amphi- 
theatre, facing the ocean side of the structure, and 
are walled with glass of many colors. 

The most fantastic effects are caused by the filter- 
ing sun, the reaching surf, the arching sky, the 
curving clouds, and those radiant mosaics. 

Whether the sunbeams are imprisoned and tem- 
pered, the glare of electricity softened, the great, 
green billows are broken in snowy embroidery 
upon the amber sands, or ivory fogs fold the fair 
battlements in a fond embrace, the result is equally 
inspiring, incomparable and indescribable. 

— 47 — 



A seating capacity is afforded for twenty-five 
thousand spectators within the edifice, though 
larger numbers would scarcely strain it; accessi- 
ble on all days and at all hours, not merely 
to bathers, but for the promenader, the leisurely 
stroller, the artist, the student, who finds rare and 
fascinating subjects of thought in the girdling 
galleries, draperied balconies, mazy staircases, se- 
questered alcoves and statued niches, fanned by 
ozoned winds, embellished with every visible en- 
chantment, treasurable from the mystic museums 
of the past. 

A man, however, may build and yet not be a 
master architect, though his buttressed walls be as 
adamant, his shafts and spires and towers soar star- 
ward. 

That structure, surpassing mortal conception, 
must bear harmony with humanity, else it is like 
unto the ''baseless fabric" of a dream. From his 
vast and varied creations, it might be inferred that 
Mr. Sutro is a man of force rather than feeling, of 
rigor rather than repose ; but the fallacy of this 
inference is proven by his treatment of the poor, 
which is always more deferential than of the rich. 

So considerate of the unfortunate is this prince 

- 4 8- 




ART GALLERY SUTRO BATHS 



of finance, that he has been christened by a wag 
not wholly witless, the "Czar of the Scavengers." 

In the winter of '93, when great suffering pre- 
vailed among the indigent unemployed of San 
Francisco, Mr. Sutro purchased tickets from the 
Salvation Army to the value of eight hundred dol- 
lars, as occasion required, which were distributed, 
upon application, and secured to their holders a 
least temporary relief. 

His contributions to all public charity, since his 
arrival to opulence, have been munificent, and con- 
fined neither to race, creed nor class. His private 
alms are said to be limited only to the immediate 
needs of the individual. 

A princely gift, consisting of twenty-six acres of 
land, to the University of California, the chosen 
site of the affiliated colleges, is among the many 
and more recent monuments to the name of Sutro. 
Geographically, it is located near the center of the 
City and County of San Francisco, two blocks 
south of, and near the entrance of Golden Gate 
Park proper, on a gently rolling eminence com- 
manding a noble landscape, which embraces the 
ocean, Golden Gate, the shores of Marin, the hills 
of Contra Costa. 

— 51 — 



Personally, Mr. Sutro presents a rare combination 
of strength and simplicity — suggestive of a seer, a 
child, a diplomat, a courtier, a sage ; his words are 
few, deliberate, fitly chosen, and framed ever with 
becoming complaisance to the opinions of others. 
That this personality is appreciated, his great ser- 
vices to the State recognized by the people, could 
not have been more emphatically illustrated than in 
his election to the Mayoralty, when he received a 
vote greater than the combined number of his four 
opponents, and against the opposition of every daily 
paper, political organization and moneyed corpora- 
tion in the city. 

This election is the signal of something more 
than an expression of sentiment. It means a vic- 
tory of honest elements in monopoly-enslaved San 
Francisco. It marks a new epoch in municipal 
affairs; it has infused new life and energy, hope 
and aspiration, long stifled by the strangling clutch 
of corporations; it has clearly demonstrated Mr. 
Sutro' s claim to the title of reformer, by an achieve- 
ment of that which no man, heretofore, has ever 
dared attempt on the Pacific Coast — namely — a 
championship of the people's cause; and the time 
was ripe for the champion of such cause. 

— 52 — 



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The masses, long steeped in enfeebling apathy, 
engendered by a piratic plutocracy more dangerous 
and degrading than foreign-forged fetters, or the 
slavery of our own South, have shifted their shack- 
les, and rise, in response to their leader's call, 
assertive of their sullied, but none the less free 
birthright ; for Mr. Sutro knows no interests insep- 
arable from those of the people. 

To those who best know this soft- voiced, tran- 
quil-eyed, gentle-mannered, seer-souled man, it 
seems a harsh and altogether incongruous dispensa- 
tion, thus to descend from his regal eminences 
among the flowers and forests, and fair, fine things 
which his own excelling fancy has flung there, on 
the rugged rim of a savage world; to breathe an 
atmosphere freighted with the poison of political 
feuds, fraud, contention, avarice, artifice and all the 
vitiated currents of a corrupted municipality ; but 
a motive mightier than is known to his critics 
guides the master spirit, whose deeds speak in tones 
more thrilling than ten thousand trumpets; whose 
monuments rise from every rood of ground within 
the Sunset City's spacious limits; where sorrow 
finds solace in his sympathy. 

Despair is lifted to hope by his bounty. Com- 

LofC. 



merce is vitalized by his energy. Hospitals claim 
him as their benefactor. Schools own him as 
their patron. Art finds in him a supporter. The 
feet of progress are sandaled by his silver. Inven- 
tion, by his fostering patronage, has successfully 
wrestled with the hidden forces of nature. Science 
leans on him, while her starry vision scales the 
infinite. 

Patriotism sings paeans for him, who in the hour 
of the State's struggle, sent the ringing gold of 
mercy to chime with the flashing steel of valor. In 
the life of all enterprise, the vigor of all progress, 
all expansive and ennobling unfoldment contained 
in the history of California, the name of Adolph 
Sutro is inseperably identified. To such there comes 
no age nor death nor oblivion. 




- 56 



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